Uncontrolled Workplace Breaks and Productivity

Behaviors that may waste time in the workplace, like surfing the Internet for personal purposes (cyberloafing) or smoking breaks, may be the root antecedent for poor productivity. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine whether there was a relationship between the independent variables: time spent cyberloafing and time in uncontrolled smoking breaks, and the dependent variable: employee productivity. Procedural justice theory was used to frame the study. The population consisted of 34 employees working in a multinational engineering company in Jordan who have official smoking policies, but not cyberloafing policies. Correlations and multiple regression were computed using a Cyberloafing Scale and time spent smoking (independent variables) and The Endicott Work Productivity Scale (dependent variable). The results of the correlations indicated no significant relationship between Internet surfing and employee productivity. Smoking breaks were not a significant source of wasted time during the workday (the subsample and frequency of engaging in smoking were low); therefore, smoking did not have an effect on productivity. The findings of this study support the theory that using the Internet at work does not affect employee productivity. These findings have implications for positive social change that are also supported by existing research. Employees who engage in personal Internet activities at work tend to meet private demands and obligations. This connectivity may help to facilitate work-life balance

Ways to Ensure Energy Security in Uzbekistan

This article explores the concept of energy security in the country, the experiences of foreign countries of the factors influencing energy security. Ways to ensure energy security, types of security, stages of their management, the current situation in the region and in Uzbekistan, proposals and recommendations on energy security have been developed

Governing through educational discourse: the case of integration in Israel, 1970-1973

Issues of ethnicity, culture, and national identity have been central in every political and social circle in Israel since the first days of the Zionist movement. The “new Jew,” a term created and lionized by the Zionist movement at the end of the 19th century, shadowed Israeli society and remained a critical part of the struggle for national identity and unity in the State of Israel after its independence in 1948. This Jew was to be a white, educated, westernized citizen, involved in both political and social processes, knowledgeable in the terms of the Western world. The concepts of the new Israeli-Jew completely ignored the fact that since the first days of the Zionism movement, the Middle Eastern Jew, born, raised and significantly involved in Arab countries, was a notable part of it and of the process of building the Jewish state of Israel. (author's abstract

Ways of Introduction of Modern Management Mechanisms in the Electric Power Sector of Uzbekistan

This article examines the potential and future goals and objectives of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the field of electricity generation among Central Asian countries. In addition, the problems in the processes of electricity generation and supply to consumers, shortcomings in the management mechanisms of organizations in the electricity generation sector and ways to address them are highlighted

A Review of Cyberloafing Predictors in Literature

Surfing the Internet for personal purposes during working hours is known as cyberloafing. Employers consider cyberloafing as a counterproductive behavior that causes productivity losses. Researchers, however, have demonstrated to find cyberloafing beneficial for the employees' social and emotional needs. It is essential to investigate the causes of cyberloafing to predict the behavior and recommend the appropriate workplace Internet use policies in favor of employee productivity. This paper will provide the main tested cyberloafing predictors in the literature. This paper will provide academic information necessary for establishing future researches on cyberloafing

The Effects of Video Prompting on Teaching Daily Living Tasks to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties with learning age-appropriate daily living skills (DLS) at their homes, schools, and in the community. Such skills are significant for independent life, post-school education, employment, and overall quality of life. Video prompting (VP) is a teaching practice that has demonstrated positive outcomes in teaching a variety of DLS to individuals with ASD. The overarching purpose of this collected papers dissertation was to investigate the effects of VP interventions on improving DLS of individuals with ASD. This dissertation included two separate papers. The first paper was a meta-analysis that examined the overall effect of VP when teaching DLS to individuals with ASD across single-case research design (SCRD) studies. An analysis of potential moderators was also examined: VP intervention types, participants’ ages, and participants’ disabilities. There were 54 participantsacross17 studies meeting the study’s inclusion criteria. The results demonstrated a high-moderate effect size (ES) for VP on the acquisition of DLS across 17 studies including 54 participants. The analysis of potential moderators showed no significant differences across all moderator variables. Limitations and implications for research and practices are provided in Chapter II. The second paper was a SCRD study comparing the effects of VP alone to least-to-most prompting alone on improving three office-related tasks to secondary-aged children with developmental disabilities. An adapted alternating treatment design (AATD), including baseline, comparison, best treatment, and final treatment phases was used to examine the interventions. Data related to the effects, efficiency, and social validity of both interventions were collected to address the research questions. Video prompting was effective for all participants, while least-to-most promoting was effective for two participants. Also, VP was more efficient than least-to-most prompting in terms of sessions-to-criterion and percent of errors for all participants. Least-to-most prompting was more efficient than VP in terms of the total duration of teaching time for all participants. Finally, all participants and their teachers reported positive perspectives regarding the study’s procedures and outcomes. Limitations, future research, and implications for practices are discussed in Chapter III. Lastly, the summary of the entire dissertation and extended discussions of both papers are presented in Chapter IV

Understanding users’ acceptance of smart homes

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Smart homes allow owners to monitor and control wide range of home appliances remotely and intelligently. Despite its potential, the acceptance of smart homes by residents is still far from expectations. Thus, this study aims to investigate the factors that influence residents’ acceptance and usage of smart home. By extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research incorporates more factors related to users such as trust, awareness, enjoyment, and perceived risks to study intention to use smart homes and investigate their impact quantitatively by using SEM-PLS approach. Results show that trust, awareness, enjoyment, and perceived risks, with perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use significantly influence attitude towards smart homes which, in turn, impact the intention to use smart homes